František Mikloško - FM
Ľubomír Jančok - ĽJ

ĽJ: How long have you been involved in politics and which factors have influenced you and your entry in it?

FM : Considering politics as a service of public affairs, I have entered the public stage in 1983. At that time, the Franciscans (working secretly) were arrested in Slovakia as well as in the Czech Republic (as parts of Czechoslovakia). And therefore we were organizing petitions with our names, addresses and signatures appearing on them. Since then I had been taking part in every such event taking place in Slovakia.1989 I became a member of the coordinative committee of the Public against violence (VPN) (revolutionary committee). Under this name I was co-opted, March 1, 1990, into the Council of the Slovak Republic (SNR). In June the same year I was elected President of the Parliament. If this term of office is finished properly, I will have been member of Parliament for 20 years.

ĽJ: 5 times re-elected...

FM: co-opted, then in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2006 which means sextuple re-election into the Parliament.

                                                             source : KDS

ĽJ: You have been standing for the seat of the President of Slovak Republic for the second time already. Jacques Chirac hasn't succeeded but the third time, from where do you draw strength and take heart and conviction to progress?

FM: I‘m thinking of the French politicians like Jacques Chirac and François Mitterand were. I met Mitterand personally during his visit to Czecoslovakia and Bratislava. I have hosted him because I was welcoming him in the National Council of the Slovak Republic (SNR). He was not elected but at the second time if I am not mistaken?

ĽJ: Yes, first he lost against Valéry Giscard d´Estaing in 1974 to get to Elysée later in 1981.

FM: Wherefrom it follows in this moment that my example is Mitterand, rather than Chirac (laugh).

ĽJ: Can you tell me in what you are different from the other candidates?

FM: In my conservative and Christian views. I talk about the Memory of the nation, which can be proved by the fact that since 1990 I have been standing by all the projects concerning the memory of Slovakia. I talk about the conscience and democracy - I‘ve taken part in all the struggles for democracy. I talk about the openness towards the world - I've been leading the dialogues during the negotiations with Hungarians.
That's why my campaign is not based on the pre-election talks but on my political work and continuity throughout those 20 years.

ĽJ: How can we explain to a Swiss or French that the present President and President of Governement have no support of the young whatsoever. On the contrary, some anti-something groups emerge.

FM: Generally, there is no athmosphere for politics in Slovakia. It is almost impossible to compare the situation during presidential elections here and in the USA. We may have the impression there is no demand for such a function. After the president Michal Kováč there was no successor and it was not even noticed by anyone. The problem is that no president has ever fulfilled his function by giving a sense to it. The President has a special role in Slovakia. He is elected directly but has no legal authority whatsoever. The reason of this phenomenon can be explained by a bit paradoxical situation: when Mečiar was having strong position in the parliament, he wanted to achieve that the president be elected by the deputies. Such president elected by Parliament would be just a puppet in his hands. And that's what made us react immediately and give people the right to vote in presidential elections. So has the president kept his powers since 1992. What can he do about it? He can strive to fulfill his function by giving it some message and sense. That's what no one has achieved yet and this function has remained completely depreciated.

                                                        source : KDS

ĽJ: The biggest convulsions throughout your career, successes or disillusions?

FM: The fact that I was elected to the Parliament in the first free elections. I have become the first constitutional representant in Slovakia. To build such a career lasts for years in the western countries. My career started nevertheless in the revolutionary period. Then it was the dismissal of Vladimír Mečiar in 1994. And generally the whole period from 1994 until 1998 when I was attacked and beaten in front of my house. Since 1998 I've been member of all coalition governments. Then my retreat from the government because it didn't support the conscience clause (agreed with the Holy See before) which was a big moment for us. Then my retreat from KDH (Christian-Democratic Movement) which got into a regressive state. It also shows the state of some European Christian democracies. We left on time to create something that will reflect the conservative and Christian politics.

ĽJ: For the francophones: how can be your relation towards France characterized? You would mention, in the past, that your mother was a teacher of French?!

How do you find the French president Nicolas Sarkozy? According to my analyses, in Slovakia he would vote or support SDKU-DS (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union) or KDS (Conservative Democrats of Slovakia). When I think more deeply about it, he would incline to KDS. He would see in this party the courage and dynamic approach to social problems...such a partially built road, undamaged but unfinished, either. The right-wing press like Le Figaro and catholic press La Croix, conservative and catholic circles, aristocratic districts of Paris support him evidently, even if the aristocrats dont's like his moral and familial excesses. I'm convinced of the fact that he is conservative by his heart, yet, by his mind less - I can attribute it rather to strategic tendencies that enter the game of the politic chessboard.

FM: I have such a contradictive relation towards France. My mother was a teacher of French. I've been listening about France for whole my life. Paris is very close to me, I like art and the French literature. I've never been to France, though, the desire after it has still remained in my heart. I'm not going to discuss the Sarkozy's excesses. I like his idea of making France the powerful country, dynamic power of Europe and world. However, if he came to my press conference in Gaza, I'd be rather rude to ask him what he‘s doing there. That's what the presiding duke Schwarzenberg has done (Secretary of State in Czech Republic). I like his acting after all.

traduction by Magdaléna Moravcová